Saturday, 6 February 2010

give me an answer, do

I have a colleague here in Strasbourg who is still on the electoral register in the UK (as am I and entitled to be for the next 12 years, so there) and was last resident in Reading West. He asked me who he should vote for, having already decided that if Salter stood again it would not be for him. I didn't have to think about it for long. I said that if I were voting in Reading West it would be for Adrian Windisch, the Green candidate. Of course there is still time for other candidates to register. I also told him that I believe the seat will be Conservative after the election.

The LibDem candidate for Reading West, Daisy Benson (hence the title of this post) has moved out of Redlands, which is the ward she represents on the council, and to a location west of the centre of Reading. It is however in the Reading East constituency. Sadly Ms Benson does not appear to have been aware of this, and thought she was moving into the constituency she hoped to represent. My correspondent tells me she has been using the Salter map of Reading. Daisy, Daisy, if you make a mistake like that keep quiet about it, don't tell every council officer in a three-mile radius.

We UK citizens who live elsewhere in the EU can register as overseas voters in the last constituency we lived in, which I have done, and can vote there in general elections. But not in Scottish or Welsh or London assembly or local elections. We French residents can vote in France in municipal elections and in either country in European elections. We cannot vote in France's regional elections, which take place next month, for reasons which escape me. Twenty of France's 22 regions are under Parti Socialiste administration. The one I live in in eastern France is one of the other two. Seems to me that if I cannot vote in the regionals here in France I should be able to vote in London. Grrr.